On difunctionality of class relations

Abstract

For a given variety V of algebras, we define a class relation to be a binary relation R ⊆ S^2 which is of the form R = S^2 ∩ K for some congruence class K on A^2, where A is an algebra in V such that S ⊆ A. In this paper we study the following property of V: every reflexive class relation is an equivalence relation. In particular, we obtain equivalent characterizations of this property analogous to well-known equivalent characterizations of congruence-permutable varieties. This property determines a Mal’tsev condition on the variety and in a suitable sense, it is a join of Chajda’s egg-box property as well as Duda’s direct decomposability of congruence classes.